An attendee favorite at past Blue Team Con events, the Capture The Flag events are a fun and challenging way to hone your cybersecurity defense skills alongside your peers. We’re bringing back some new and different CTF experiences for 2026, brought to you by our sponsors. Check back soon, new CTF challenges will be added shortly.
Saturday September 12, 2026 10:00am - 6:00pm CDT Swissôtel Chicago323 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
We are a community dedicated to bridging the gap between spoken languages and cybersecurity. Our mission is to unify multilingual professionals and enthusiasts, fostering global collaboration and knowledge sharing in the infosec space.
Saturday September 12, 2026 10:00am - 6:00pm CDT Swissôtel Chicago323 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
IoT Village advocates for advancing security in the Internet of Things (IoT) industry through bringing researchers and industry together. IoT Village hosts talks by expert security researchers, interactive hacking labs, live bug hunting in the latest IoT tech, and competitive IoT hacking contests. Over the years IoT Village has served as a platform to showcase and uncover hundreds of new vulnerabilities, giving attendees the opportunity to learn about the most innovative techniques to both hack and secure IoT. IoT Village is organized by security consulting and research firm, Independent Security Evaluators (ISE). Follow both ISE (@ISEsecurity) and IoT Village (@IoTvillage) on Twitter for updates on talks, contests, and giveaways.
Saturday September 12, 2026 10:00am - 6:00pm CDT Swissôtel Chicago323 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
The Lab room is a place where attendees can get an in-depth walk-through or workshop through use cases with hands-on experience using cybersecurity products developed by our sponsors. Each Lab is open for two hours, so if there is a particular company or product that you’d like to see, make note of their Lab timeslot below or find the lab listing in the schedule here: https://blueteamcon.com/labs-blue-team-con-2026/
Melian Security Lab: 10:00am to 12:00pm CDT Exaforce Lab: 12:00pm to 2:00pm CDT Empirical Security Lab: 2:00pm to 4:00pm CDT Flare Lab: 4:00pm to 6:00pm CDT
Saturday September 12, 2026 10:00am - 6:00pm CDT Swissôtel Chicago323 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
Got an older Windows computer that can't really support Windows 11 but aren't ready to spend on an upgrade?
Just done with Microsoft's "Agentic OS?"
Our Linux village is here for you with computers to test out Linux on, experts to answer your questions, and we will even install Linux Mint on your computer for you - the OS is free and so is our help! Our mission is to help you explore Linux as your ""daily driver"" OS, and show you just what you can do in a modern Linux environment. So if you've ever wondered what all the talk is about, if you're ready to take the Linux plunge, or if you're anywhere in between, stop by and talk with us, we're here to help you on your Linux journey!
Learn more here: https://www.between-two-firewalls.com/linux-village/
Saturday September 12, 2026 10:00am - 6:00pm CDT Swissôtel Chicago323 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
The Wellness Village will be ran by Mental Health Hackers, a 501(c)(3) organization.
The Mental Health Hacker’s (MHH) mission is to educate tech professionals about the unique mental health risks faced by those in our field – and often by the people who we share our lives with – and provide guidance on reducing their effects and better manage the triggering causes. This will be done through numerous talks and speakers conducted within the village during the conference. There will also be fun activities, crafts, coloring, and more to help you reduce stress and take a mental break from the conference activities and attendees.
MHH also aims at providing support services to those who may be susceptible to related mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, social isolation, eating disorders, etc.
Please understand that MHH does not provide counseling or therapy services.
Learn more at https://www.mentalhealthhackers.org/.
Find Wellness Village Talks in the schedule under the category "Villages", subtype "Wellness Village Talks".
Saturday September 12, 2026 10:00am - 6:00pm CDT Swissôtel Chicago323 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
Open during the entire time (even through the night) of the conference.
The Unconference Village is an open-mic setup with a podium and a projector. No talks are selected or scheduled before the start of the conference. Once the conference opens, you can sign up for a slot to present. If your amazing talk didn’t get selected by the Blue Team Con CFP committee, this is your chance to present on your topic in a creative way. If you didn’t submit but wished you would have – here you go! If you want to do a fishbowl about knitting – have at it! The topics do not have to be cybersecurity related. It’s an Unconference!
Saturday September 12, 2026 10:00am - 11:59pm CDT Swissôtel Chicago323 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
The goal of the presentation is to review helpful versus unhelpful coping mechanisms, present strategies to help you identify whether the coping mechanisms you currently use are helpful or causing more stress in your life, and to review strategies to help develop healthy coping mechanisms.
Saturday September 12, 2026 1:30pm - 2:00pm CDT Swissôtel Chicago323 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
I wrote https://oursoc.io/f/conquering-imposter-syndrome to share with my proteges in software/cyber. After a lifetime of combat with my own imposter syndrome, I have useful thoughts to offer. Self-acceptance is the ultimate cure for imposter syndrome. Unfortunately, those who suffer from imposter syndrome are often the least likely to leap to self-acceptance. I therefore provide multiple simple yet potent recommendations to strengthen our professional skills and build durable, understated confidence in ourselves. This increase in healthy confidence expands our ability to create value for others and to achieve in all areas of our lives. It allows us to cultivate a more rewarding career while we pursue the journey toward greater and greater self-acceptance.
Saturday September 12, 2026 2:30pm - 3:00pm CDT Swissôtel Chicago323 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
Most organizations have an incident response plan. Most have never tested one against a scenario they might actually lose.
This session looks at what security operations can learn from how people actually experience and adapt to pain. Drawing on 25 years in cybersecurity, an academic background in trauma and resilience, ultramarathon training, and life with a chronic pain condition, the talk examines why most security teams rehearse only the scenarios they expect to pass, and what it would mean to train for failure instead.
Along the way we'll look at the difference between getting hit and taking a hit, what research on pain and resilience suggests about team performance under stress, how leadership behavior quietly shapes a team's capacity to recover, and why this particular motto can be as harmful as it is motivating.
Attendees will leave with a different way to think about readiness, and some practical starting points for building it.
Saturday September 12, 2026 5:00pm - 5:30pm CDT Swissôtel Chicago323 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
Open during the entire time (even through the night) of the conference.
The Unconference Village is an open-mic setup with a podium and a projector. No talks are selected or scheduled before the start of the conference. Once the conference opens, you can sign up for a slot to present. If your amazing talk didn’t get selected by the Blue Team Con CFP committee, this is your chance to present on your topic in a creative way. If you didn’t submit but wished you would have – here you go! If you want to do a fishbowl about knitting – have at it! The topics do not have to be cybersecurity related. It’s an Unconference!
Sunday September 13, 2026 12:00am - 3:00pm CDT Swissôtel Chicago323 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
